Ato z sept15-digital

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THE A-TO-Z OF
CONTENT MARKETING
IDEAS
A rather handy guide from ...
By Bryony Thomas

CONTENTS
THE POWER OF GREAT CONTENT 1
Foreword by Sonja Jeﬀerson, Founder of Valuable Content 1
What is marketing content? 1
How does marketing support sales results? 2
Keeping the content engine running 2
HOW TO USE THESE IDEAS 4
What makes interesting content? 4
Ideas to get you through the next two years! 5
IDEAS FROM A-to-Z 6
List Index 6
Do you have some more ideas? 77
WATERTIGHT MARKETING 78
WHAT NEXT? 79
ABOUT BRYONY THOMAS 80
Want your content to support
every step in a sale? Get the book

THEPOWEROFGREATCONTENT
Foreword by Sonja Jefferson, Founder of Valuable Content
Great content is the key to successful marketing today. Content that helps or
inspires rather than self promotes will help you sell more.
As Bryony Thomas so rightly points out in her brilliant book Watertight
Marketing, high quality, genuinely valuable content earns you the right to a
buyer’s precious time and helps them along their journey to a sale.
Right around the world content marketing is all the rage. From successful
independents, to smart SMEs and corporates such as HSBC and M&S,
companies are cottoning on to the power of content to engage customers and
drive business. According to a survey* by the Content Marketing Institute, 95%
of B2B marketers have adopted this as part of their marketing strategy along
with 97% of their B2C peers.
The conversation has rapidly shifted from ‘should our company prioritise
content in today’s marketing mix?’ to ‘how do we create the type of content our
clients and customers are searching for?’
Content marketing success is all in the implementation
We know from our work with firms around the UK that when it comes to creating
content, the number one question is ‘what do I write about?’ Knowing what to
say can feel like a real hurdle.
Bryony Thomas’ A-to-Z of Content Marketing Ideas comes to the rescue. With
over 140 different thought starters you’ll never be stuck without something
interesting to say.
*Content Marketing in the UK – 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends
Sonja Jefferson is the founder of content marketing strategists,
Valuable Content and co-author of the 5-star business book:
‘Valuable Content Marketing – how to make high quality content
the key to your business success.’ (Kogan Page, £19.99).
valuablecontent.co.uk | @sonjajefferson

What is marketing content?
Marketing content is material generated by your business that you put out into
the world to generate some sort of interest in what your business does. I’d
specifically differentiate sales content and marketing content. Sales content is
material specifically about your products and services – e.g. features, benefits,
prices, etc. Things like brochures, catalogues, product pages, proposals, data
sheets, price lists, etc. Anything that basically says ‘buy from us’ is sales content.
High quality marketing content, on the other hand, explicitly does not talk about
these things. Marketing content is material that leads into a conversation about
an area of interest, helps identify sales opportunities, and aides the sales
process by being helpful and engaging.
Content marketing is when you put this sort of material at the heart of your
sales engine. It’s what invites people into finding out more about you. It helps
them to understand you and to like you. And in doing so, actively choose to buy
from you.
Content can take various forms, things like:
• Papers
• Newlsetters
• Leaflets
• Blog posts
• Web pages
• Videos
• Webcasts
• Downloads
• Tweets
• Comments
• Profiles
• Imagery
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Presentations
• Talks
However, this is a pointless list if you can’t actually work out what to put in them.
You know... the actual words rather than the format in which they are delivered.
So this A-to-Z list isn’t about the format of your content, it’s about the, um,
content of your content!

How does marketing support sales results?
Delivering long-term sales results is what Watertight Marketing is all about. We
give you a clear understanding how real people really buy, and then mapping an
effective marketing tool, technique or activity against each step in their decision.
This means that your buyers have somewhere to pause, think, and actively
choose to move forward. And, your salespeople always have a good reason to
stay in touch, with a way of earning the right to their precious time (see Chapter
4 of Watertight Marketing). A sales operation that works like this, delivers
customers who buy more, stay longer, and tell the world how great you are.
Your marketing content is what keeps this running. It’s the marketing fuel in
your sales engine.
Step Powerful content Gives you...
AWARENESS Status updates, headlines, etc. Visibility and reach
INTEREST Blog posts, articles, podcasts An invitation to buyers
EVALUATION Papers, guides, presentations Showing rather than telling
TRIAL Webinars, audits, calculators A taste of what you do
ADOPTION Welcome, internal selling Emotional connection
LOYALTY Newsletters, exclusive content Be remembered and valued
Keeping the content engine running
The more considered the purchase, the longer people will take to make up their
mind. Great content can speed this up. But, more importantly, it can keep the
conversation going for as long as it takes.
Great content will help you to earn the right to a person’s time. But, it also keeps
the conversation going over time. Whether the decision takes six minutes, six
days, six months, or even years... your content can give you a reason to stay in
touch, and your buyers reasons to get in touch with you. And, from these
touchpoints come conversations. And, from conversations come sales.

Illustration taken from my book, Watertight Marketing
There are lots of reasons to create great content. But, if you’re going to get this
content to pay you back you’ll need to make a commitment to doing it consistently.
The sort of commitment you’re looking at to get great results from your great
content, might include:
Tweeting a few times every day,
Blogging at least once per week,
Sending a subscriber newsletter weekly or monthly,
Running a webinar each month,
Issuing a new paper every quarter,
Re-purposing all this stuff into Podcasts, webcasts, Slideshares, and more.
That’s a lot of content. And, whilst you will most certainly be able to re-use,
TIME
BLOG
EVENT
BLOG
NEED
LOYALTYLOYALTY
TRIALTRIAL
AWARENESSAWARENESS
EVALUATIONEVALUATION
ADOPTIONADOPTION
INTERESTINTEREST
re-cycle and re-spin a great deal of it... you will definitely need some ideas,
themes and reasons to put it out there. So, here’s some help with exactly that...
Events, calculators
Papers, guides, etc.
Customer-only content
Status updates, headlines, etc

HOWTOUSETHESEIDEAS
There’s nothing more daunting than a blank sheet of paper. And, there’s never
been more pressure on marketers to continually come up with interesting things
to say.
Whether it’s something to Tweet, an offer to drive a little interest, or something
the start a conversation at a networking event. Coming up with a constant
stream of content ideas is challenging.
Coming up with a constant stream of good content ideas is even harder.
To make the most of both traditional and social media marketing and the
benefits of a digitally savvy audience you now need to be blogging, tweeting,
Facebooking, emailing, Linking-in, posting discussions, running competitions,
commenting on the latest events, web casting, running online events, and so
much more. We’re also told that regular new content on our websites with
plenty of SEO phrases , and hanging out on Google+, will help our sites to rank in
search results.
The argument for content marketing is compelling – but what do you say?
To feed this need for frequent, fresh, and interesting content – and to help you
start the process without a blank sheet of paper, we’ve collated over 140 ideas
to get your own thoughts going. They won’t all apply, and we don’t suggest that
you shoe-horn your thinking into these ideas if they’re not appropriate to your
business – just want to get the grey cells going and help you spark a few
things off.
What makes interesting content?
What people find interesting will depend on their personalities and their context.
Are you answering a question?
Solving a problem?
Making them laugh?
Making them cry?

Here are some ideas for coming up with ideas:
Brainstorm with your team
Ask your customers and web visitors for suggestions
Go through customer service enquiries to identify common themes
Keep a notebook with you for jotting down ideas when they come to you
A top technique is to tap into things your intended audience already find
interesting, and relate this in some way to what your company does. Now, don’t
go saying stuff just for the sake of saying something. Do take a look at these
ideas and see if you can think of how you might use it to say something that
your audience will find genuinely interesting, useful or amusing.
It’s an A-to-Z list of common themes, subjects and other things, that might get
you thinking.
To get the most from it, pull together a few people in a room with a whiteboard
and read out the prompts in this list. Then brainstorm around the room for how
your business might use the idea.
Ideas to get you through the next two years!
If you ran a 20-minute brainstorm using each letter every week for the next 26
weeks, I’d be willing to bet that you’d come up with enough really good ideas to
keep you going for a couple of years. In fact, with over 140 thought starters...
using each one once gives you enough to keep your content ideas flowing well
over two years.
Go on, I challenge you... use this paper to prompt one post per week for the next
year at least.
Let me know how you get on!
BRYONY THOMAS
THE Watertight MARKETER
@bryonythomas

IDEASFROMA-to-Z
List Index
A
Advice
Ambitions
Analogies
Anecdotes
Anniversaries
Assumptions
Astrology
Awards
B
Best practice
Birthdays
Books
Bucket list
C
Calendars
Careers
Case studies
Celebrities
Challenges
Change
Charities
Checklists
Compliance
Concerns
Customers
D
Debates
Design
Diary dates
E
Economy
Education
Environment
Events
Examples
Experiments
F
Facts
Fashion
Feedback
Festivals
Films
Finance
Fun
G
Gardening
Geology
Goals
Grants
Graphology
Growth
Green issues
Guests
Guides
H
Health
History
Hobbies
Holidays
Horoscopes
How to
I
Indulgence
Inspiration
Interviews

J
Jargon
Jobs
Jokes
Journeys
Jury Service
K
Kick-start
KPIs
L
Language
Laws
Learning
Lists
Locations
Lyrics
M
Maps
Memories
Mistakes
Milestones
Money
Music
Mythology
N
Names
News
Nonsense
O
Occasions
Opinions
Opportunities
P
People
Personality
Pictures
Places
Planning
Politics
Polls
Predictions
Product development
Productivity
Profiles
Problems
Profit
Q
Qualifications
Quality
Questionnaires
Questions
Quotes
R
Regional
Religion
Research
Retrospectives
Reviews

S
Saints’ days
Scenarios
Science
Seasons
Skills
Sport
Standards
Statistics
Stereotypes
Stories
Success
Surveys
T
Technology
Television
Templates
Testimonials
Thank you
Time
Tips
Tours
Training
Travel
Trends
Turning points
U
Uniforms
Universe
Unique
Usability
V
Values
Vision
Votes
W
Weather
Weekends
Words
X
X – Treasure hunts
Y
Ying & Yang
Yourself
Z
Zoology

A
Advice
Our advice is to give good advice. You can do this for free in blogs or tutorial
videos to generate awareness, word of mouth and search-driven traffic. You
can create a useful download or online event for which people register, thereby
giving you leads to follow-up. Introductory offers, like free trials or online reviews
can generate hot leads. Or, you can charge for your advice with audits, reviews
or training events.
One way you could use this:
Ambitions
Sharing your personal and professional ambitions can do a number of things.
Public declarations often help people to focus on making things happen. You will
often find people willing to help you with your challenges. And, people often
share their ambitions with you in return. It might be that what you do
professionally (and for a profit) can help them. Or, you might know someone who
could help, and vice versa.

Analogies
We love a good analogy. Using something from everyday life to explain a tough
concept or bring an idea to life can make for an interesting read, a fab cartoon
or a perfect viral video. For example, we like to compare marketing to DIY or a
fitness regime. What in your business could be helpfully, or amusingly, compared
to something we could all relate to?
Anecdotes
Amusing or interesting stories from real life can make great conversation
starters. Observing a customer receiving excellent (or not) customer service, for
example, in any setting could be the starting point for a discussion on what
constitutes good service.
Back to List Index

Anniversaries
Marking your own anniversaries, like number of years in business or key
milestones in your business development can make for an interesting
retrospective. You can also look to historical events or markers in your industry
to spark off your own thoughts. Perhaps there was a key scientific discovery that
was important to your technology, the formation of your industry body, or a
legal reform that meant something profound. In a one-to-one marketing
setting, have you thought about marking customer anniversaries - perhaps
they get a special discount or ecard when they’ve been with you a year?
Assumptions
Challenging assumptions can be good for getting attention. Have think or
brainstorm with colleagues about assumptions in your own industry, then break
them down to see if they’re a help or a hindrance. In marketing, for example,
people often assume that older people don’t use the Internet – just not true. Or,
business decision-makers don’t use social media. This could make a great
discussion in an appropriate LinkedIn group.
Back to List Index

Astrology
Astrology can be fun, perhaps you could get the astrological charts done for
your key people to see if it really sums up their personalities? Retailers also have
opportunities to theme gifts around astrological birth signs for a given month.
Awards
You can, of course, enter awards – but that’s not the only way to make use of
them. How about critiquing the entries and winners or reviewing what the entry
criteria tells us about best practice. You could even run your own awards – do
you have partners or resellers, could you run an annual award for them? Could
you ask your customers to vote for the best product, service or employee? You
should certainly be aware of the awards in your own industry and keep an eye
on who wins what and why.
Back to List Index

B
Best practice
It’s an oldie but a goodie. Helping people to understand and implement best
practice makes for great marketing content. Whether you do this in a blog,
video, webcast, seminar, download, talk at regional events... it’s always a winner.
Birthdays
Birthdays are great – there’s your company’s Birthday, Birthdays of key people
in your organisation. You can also use famous Birthdays as a thought starter.
Imagine it’s the date of Marilyn Monroe’s Birthday and you run a fashion or
jewellery company... what do you think she would have liked as a gift from your
catalogue? Who’s famous or influential in your industry - when’s their Birthday
and how could you mark it?
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Books
There are hundreds of books written every year. There’s bound to be something
new out there relevant to what your company offers – how about writing a book
review or preparing a reading list on key subjects. Perhaps you could pep up
those profiles with a list of favourite books. Or, heaven forbid, you could write a
book yourself!
Bucket list
Have you heard of a ‘bucket list’? It’s a list of things you want to do before you
die. It can be really inspiring to think about the experiences or goals that are
important to you. It might make an interesting addition to those identikit
professional profiles. You could even reward your staff for great work by
funding something from their list and film it for a little video. Haven’t you always
wanted to see your colleague do a skydive? Wouldn’t your clients love to see it
too?
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C
Calendars
Preparing a calendar style piece of content with relevant reminders can be
genuinely useful. A school or educational institution issuing term dates and
exam timetables for example. Or a lobbying group detailing when political
conferences or when key votes are. Desk formats are a bit old-fashioned (but
can still work!), for a more digital approach you could invite people to people to
sign-up to timed email alerts or preparing some sort of smart phone app could
be an innovative approach.
Careers
Helping people in your industry to build their careers can be personally
rewarding for those involved, can raise your profile locally, and can generate
future recruits and clients. Your local schools and universities will be crying out
for businesses to give talks or host interns. You could even think giving a local
degree student the chance to base their final year dissertation on your business
or industry, in return for publishing a version of it.
Back to List Index

Case studies
We can’t emphasise this one enough. Demonstrating what you do with a real
case study is an absolute must. Whether it’s business-to-business, or business-
to-consumer, people like to hear about the experiences of people like
themselves. The ideal format for case studies these days is a video interview –
direct from the horse’s mouth. But don’t forget a version that people can print
off and read on the train, or turn into a slide for a sales presentation.
Celebrities
Think about people who are in the public eye for your audience. Is there a
popular blogger or industry commentator? Perhaps you could review a book
they’ve written or reference and respond to their blog in a post of your own.
Perhaps you could attend their speaking events and do a write-up. You could
even ask them for an interview, or to attend an event that you host. Celebrity
doesn’t always mean red carpet, but it could.
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Challenges
Every business faces challenges. Being open about them can really set you
apart. Talk to your senior team about tough decisions they’ve made or changes
they’ve gone through. Posting a piece on what the challenge was and how you
met it as a business can demonstrate your values in a really interesting way.
Change
Change is a great subject. Everyone everywhere will always either have just
gone through, or be about to go through, some change or other. Be it a
restructure, a rebrand, a new hire, new processes, the economy, etc. Talking
about change and how to navigate it can be a great source of content.
Back to List Index

Charities
Working with charities can be a great way to motivate staff and express your
company values. You could do this by donating to a given cause each time a
certain product is bought, you could have a staff team undertake a fundraising
challenge, you could help them raise awareness through your communication
channels, and so much more. Without wanting to appear cynical, there’s a lot
you can do with an appropriate charity to raise awareness and funds for them,
whilst also contributing to your company’s reputation.
Checklists
Regular Watertight Marketing blog readers will know that we love a good list. If
there’s something in your line of work that people do often, why not break it
down into a handy list for them. It might be care instructions for your products,
set-up steps for a piece of technology, or steps in a process. Our ‘How to write a
marketing brief in 10 simple steps’ is one of our most popular blogs by some
distance.
Back to List Index

Compliance
If there’s a law that affects your target audience, tell them about it and help
them with it. It will demonstrate your credibility and can generate excellent leads
if your service pertains specifically to this sort of support.
Concerns
Tapping into a concern that your audience might have is a great way to engage
them. Think about the world from their seat – what do you think is keeping them
up at night? Come up with things that make this easier for them and you’ll have
their ear. That’s exactly what we’re doing in this paper – our clients told us that
they struggle to come up with content ideas, so here’s us making this a little
easier.
Back to List Index

Customers
Featuring your customers can make for great content. Whether it’s a case
study, a guest post or an interview. Prospective customers love to hear about
existing customers. Try not to get too salesy with this one, a simple interview
about a challenge they’ve experienced might be enough. That working with you
was the answer is implicit, you don’t need to harp on about it.
D
Debates
Debates are a great format. Find a topic on which people have differing views in
your industry and explore it. You can post a ‘for and against’ article, video two
people with different opinions, run a poll, etc. This can be great for stimulating
discussion.
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Design
Product design processes, or how you came up with your brand, can give people
a real insight into your business without being a dull ‘about us’ approach. Some
sort of piece that shows the stages of design, how decisions were made and a
before and after can be really powerful.
Diary dates
Little reminders like when clocks go forward, when the Bank Holidays are, etc.
can be helpful and give you a chance to promote what you have to offer.
Technology providers could send a guide on setting up custom voicemails,
diverts of out of office assistance. Virtual PAs could offer out-of-hours support.
Local venues could give ideas for days out that includes a trip to their attraction.
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E
Economy
Relating your offering to aspects of the economy can work. Working out how
any new budget announcement, or economic policy affects your target market
can certainly be useful. It’s a tried and tested technique for getting press
coverage, so you’ll either need to be really quick off the mark, or controversial, to
cut through the plethora of others who will be doing the same.
Education
Whatever industry you’re in, many of the people you deal with have families. So,
being aware of key terms dates, big results days, and childcare issues can give
you an opportunity to show understanding and offer helpful advice. If your
business is more directly related to people with families back-to-school
planning, etc. can make excellent content.
Back to List Index

Environment
If what you do can help people to be cleaner and greener, tell them about it. We
would caution against appearing to shoe horn your offer into this topic, but it is
one that a great number of people are passionately interested in, so if you have
a genuine green story to tell, go for it.
Events
Every industry has its own events – conferences, awards, trade-shows, etc. You
need to be aware of them even if you’re not attending. Asking questions via
their online presence can gain you some coverage even if you’re not there. If you
do go along, why not post a review, or response to one of the talks. And, of
course remember to find out if there’s the Twitter hashtag you can use for
related tweets.
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Examples
Are there people or businesses out there that stand as shining examples of
what you’re encouraging people to do. Compiling lists and reviews of exemplars
can be really useful in bringing what you do to life. A web agency might list five
great examples of site navigation, or homepage layout, or whatever. This is all
the more genuine if the examples you pick aren’t from your own portfolio.
Experiments
Have you tried something that your clients or customers might be thinking
about? Why not share your experiences. We once did a ‘pay what you think it’s
worth’ event and shared a write-up of how it went – it was one of most popular
posts of the year. What could your business trial, and then talk about?
Back to List Index

F
Facts
People seem to like facts and figures. If you can find a supply of interesting facts
relating to your products, service or industry, then use them. An article that
collates this information will always be gratefully received. Even better if it
original research with graphs and charts that they can reference.
Fashion
Keeping an eye on fashions and trends can provide opportunities for comment
or promotions. If you sell product, and spot that a particular colour seems to be
all the rage, you could point people to anything you have that’s complementary
– maybe in a ‘style tips’ format to be less salesy. Or perhaps you’ve spotted a
fashionista wearing something you sell?

Feedback
Whether its from an online forum, a customer satisfaction survey or a post-
event feedback form – collating positive feedback into a post that sits alongside
a page or a proposal for a similar product or service is always worth doing. You
could even collate these into a presentation turn it into a slidecast and embed it
as a looping video on the product page in question.
Festivals
Summer, for some, means music festival time. With Glastonbury at one end of
the scale and local folk festivals at the other, packing up your tent for a weekend
of fun with friends is ever popular. The 2010 Wedge Wellies hit shows how a
festival-related product can make its mark. Are you able to create some sort of
festival survival pack or guide?
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Films
Building on our earlier analogy idea – using a well known film plot to explore a
subject can be both informative and entertaining. Using Darth Vadar and Luke
Skywalker to introduce the concept of dysfunctional relationships could
certainly make a point. Or, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ for appreciating what you’ve
got. Think about your favourite films – are there any parallels to be drawn?
Finance
Relating your activity to key dates in the financial year can help you to pop up at
the right time. Obviously, if you do financial planning for a living, timing your
activity around when tax returns have to be filed or the end of the tax year is
important. If you offer strategic planning services of some kind, timing an offer
to coincide with normal financial planning cycles makes sense.
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Fun
Remember that whatever line of work you’re in, people are people wherever
they are. And if it’s appropriate, you can afford to have a little fun. In fact, fun
can be just what’s needed to set your business apart as people to work with. Are
there some fun questions you could add to liven up those professional profiles?
Or, is there an online game to be made of something you offer?
G
Gardening
Linking with Growth and with Analogies, gardening is great. You know... hard
work and the rewards there of, and all that – there’s got to be something there
for everyone?! If it’s appropriate to your business, how about... encouraging
people to grow a veggy box, maybe you’re into healthy eating, workplace health,
or something. A salad growing competition, captured in photos could be great
fun.
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Geology
Ok, it’s a personal one. I like rocks, and I like that they have meanings.
Birthstones are good if you make products from precious or semi-precious
stones. Maybe I like this one because my birthstone is Diamond... so any
marketing reminders that go to my husband to that effect are welcomed by me.
Goals
There are three ways you can look at goals. You can share your company goals
with the big wide world (see Ambitions), but what is perhaps more interesting is
to ask your customers to share theirs with you. Perhaps you could add an option
to something that you do that triggers reminders or prompts to help them meet
those goals, or help them save or reward themselves when they do so?
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Grants
Find out if there are any government grants on offer for what you do. See if you
can get your company approved as a supplier for grant-funded activity. You
then have a perfect offer to make, where people can use your services for a
vastly reduced rate, or even for free (whilst you get paid).
Graphology
I’ve wanted to do this for years! Go on... do it. Relating to individuality,
personality or personalisation, how about you get people to send you a sample
of their handwriting, you get a graphologist to analyse it and post a personality
profile – they then tell you whether it’s accurate or not. There’s got to be a
campaign in that one! Or just adding it to the profiles of your key people could
liven it up.
Green issues
See Environment.
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Growth
There are very few business that don’t want to grow. So if you’re in a B2B
context and something you offer will help a business meet their growth targets,
tell them about it. In a consumer context, personal growth is often a good topic.
Guests
Inviting a guest to provide content can be a win, win, win. Let’s say one of your
clients offers a complementary product or service. They could write you a guest
blog, which appears on your site, giving you SEO phrases, conversation starter
and a bit of variety, and they also get a bit of exposure. You can also offer your
material as guest content to others. And, it’s not just blogs – could you co-host
an event or offer a joint promotion?
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Guides
Guides to using something, doing something, preparing something, etc. are top
notch and make excellent SEO fodder. Whether it’s getting the best from a
product, planning something, etc... have a think about questions people might
ask and make that the name of your guide. You know, things like ‘How do I
prepare a marketing plan?’ That kind of thing.
H
Health
Health and fitness, like gardening, is a perennial theme. There’s the January
resolutions you could tap into, or you could simply give tips on how to weave a
little exercise in around something you offer. It also makes a great analogy for
anything that requires perseverance, consistency and pays off in the long term.
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History
Taking a quick look at ‘this day in history’ can always get you out of a tricky spot
at a networking event if you find you have nothing to say... “Did you know that on
this day in XXXX {something interesting} happened?” can be a great
conversation starter. It can also enable you to direct people to products along
the theme, or prompt article ideas inspired by historic events.
Hobbies
Does what you do hook into any key hobbies? Do people who enjoy that hobby
hang out somewhere specific online, or attend specific events? Can you attend,
provide tips, leave comment or theme a product or service to a specific hobby?
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Holidays
Even if all you do is remember to tell people your opening hours, holidays can be
a great reason to get in touch with people. You can make more of it with ideas
for great days out, productivity techniques for managing workloads around
days off, or provide details of how to arrange cover, etc.
Horoscopes
See Astrology.
How to
See Advice and Guides. Helping people to make the most of your products, use
your systems, care for their goods or simply perform better in their role will
always reflect well on you and contribute to positive word of mouth.
Back to List Index

I
Indulgence
To balance out the health and fitness, a little indulgence from time to time is
great. How about using Christmas or Easter to run a little online game, or to
send your customers an indulgent thank you? Marketing agencies seem to have
a habit of taking their teams abroad for Christmas trips, photos and tales from
the travels can make for engaging social media content.
Inspiration
Everyone likes to be inspired. Being inspirational isn’t something easily done to
order, but talking about something that’s inspired you, or inviting people to do,
so can be really engaging. If you’re a business owner, a post about what inspired
you to set up your business is usually a good read. Asking others about their
inspiration can help you to understand them better too.
Back to List Index

Interviews
Interviewing an industry leader or celebrity can be great, but don’t forget your
own people. A simple ‘meet the team’ style 20 questions can be a nice way to
show the real people in your business and bring a bit of personality to it all.
J
Jargon
Every industry has its jargon, helping people to understand what it all means is
useful and demonstrates your own understanding. A jargon-buster can be a
real winner on your website, and it’s SEO-tastic too.
Back to List Index

Jobs
Are there interesting roles in your business? Could you give people a little insight
into your company by featuring some sort of ‘day in the life of...’ one of your
people. There’s always a lot made of the leadership team, but featuring your
receptionist or designer might often be more interesting. Oh, and take care with
job ads and job specifications – they’re also ‘content’ and can say a lot about
your business.
Jokes
Don’t force it. If you’re not funny, avoid this one. However, if you have a
comedian in your midst this can be a nice touch. It probably works better in
certain social media contexts – like Facebook pages – than on your website. But,
a bit of humour can be really refreshing.
Back to List Index

Journeys
Metaphorical journeys are always good – how have you or your business
reached where you are today? What were the slips and highlights along the
way? Real journeys can also give you something to talk about, perhaps you’re a
salesperson who makes a habit of posting a photo of every hotel you stay in... or
airport you go through.
Jury service
Ok, so this one is niche... but business owners whose staff get called out on Jury
Service wonder how they should deal with it. Can you offer any advice, tips,
support, or cover?
Back to List Index

K
Kick-start
Getting started is often the hardest thing about any new challenge. So, let’s say
that the product or service you offer is related to something that’s new to
people... like losing weight, stopping smoking, trying out social media marketing,
implementing best practice... can you provide them with tools to kick-start the
process?
K PIs
Key Performance Indicators. People like to know how well they are performing at
something. Is there a way that you can help people to track their performance in
some way? Or can you provide guidance on the sorts of results they should be
seeing towards a certain goal? This could be broad benchmarks, or personalised
reports – either way, makes great content.
Back to List Index

L
Laws
Helping people to recognise and understand the laws that relate to them, their
families, their businesses, etc. is always useful. And useful means great
marketing content.
Language
As with Jargon above, language can be fascinating. Could you look at words
used in your industry and look at their derivation or how usage has changed.
Back to List Index

Learning
A lot of the content ideas here are about learning – that is showing others how
to do something. Could you turn this around and talk about some of your own
learning. Tales of key learning experiences along the road can be a great way of
showing humility and character.
Lists
We love lists! The best of... Top Ten... A-to-Z... a bit like this one.
Back to List Index

Locations
Ok, so this isn’t about techniques... so I’m not talking about ‘location based
marketing’, but the locations themselves. Could you profile your different sites?
Could you get people to tell you about places they’ve taken your products? Or
maybe run some sort of location-based photography or video competition?
(Photos of then with your stuff in weird and wonderful place – I can picture the
Facebook album already).
Lyrics
One jewellery client once asked fans on Facebook to come up with song lyrics
that reminded them of their favourite products from the range in question...
over 100 comments later and we can safely say it worked well at getting people
engaged and entertained.
Back to List Index

M
Maps
Think about locations that might be of use to your customers and provide a map
for them to access via their phone or download. Maybe you could encourage
people to get a bit of culture when they visit by pointing out local sites of interest
on your ‘how to find us’ map.
Memories
Nostalgia is a powerful thing. If your business or products are well established,
there’s fun to be had in getting people to share memories of your brand over
time. Perhaps they even have photos of your first store or examples of old ads.
Or, baby photos of your team... or a little something from their past.
Back to List Index

Milestones
See goals. Your milestones, business milestones, customer milestones. Share
them, celebrate them, and help people meet theirs.
Mistakes
There’s no better learning experience than a mistake. Could you list some of the
classic clangers in your industry and provide hints on how to avoid them. Or
even regale a true story of some of your own mistakes along the way and how
they’ve shaped your business and your approach.
Back to List Index

Money
How to make more of it. How to spend less of it. Where to find sources of
funding. How to manage cash flow. Tips on book-keeping... money is a topic that
can almost always be talked about sensibly and people will listen.
Music
Social sharing sites can now let you share playlists and what you’re currently
listening to. If it suits your business, you could put together seasonal track lists,
or maybe a selection of songs with titles that relate to something happening in
your industry.
Back to List Index

Mythology
Using well-known myths as the starting point to an article or presentation can
help hook people in and set some context. Or you could do some myth-busting...
are there ‘universal truths’ in your business that need to be challenged?
N
Names
Sharing the thinking and stories behind your company name, and/or your
product names, can make for an interesting piece. Including those that didn’t
quite make the cut is always fun too.
Back to List Index

News
Even if you’re not creating the news, you can comment on it, and respond to it.
Share the load by getting different people to track particular news outlets. If
something comes up that’s relevant to what you do, you can either comment via
their online facility, or post a response as your own blog article or a short piece-
to-camera.
Nonsense
We’ve seen some great ‘random facts’ posted by people in social media
settings, and amusing tweets from the likes of @viztoptips certainly raise a
smile. If it’s appropriate to your brand personality, adding a little bit of fun and
nonsense from time to time can show that you don’t take yourself too seriously.
Back to List Index

O
Occasions
Occasions that capture the public imagination, like Royal Weddings, sporting
events, etc. can give you an opportunity to comment. Perhaps tips on planning
the perfect wedding, or what to do if you don’t fancy watching the endless
coverage. Maybe there’s a legal or best-practice angle... like understanding
trademarks around commercial or sponsored events, for example.
Opinions
We all have them... and if you feel strongly about something it can make a great
source of content. Let’s say you feel strongly about permission marketing, data
protection, website usability or pension provision... you can post an opinion
piece, start a discussion, invite a debate.
Back to List Index

Opportunities
Passing on details of opportunities that your audience might benefit from can
stand you in good stead. Perhaps you’ve been contacted by a journalist, but
can’t supply comment yourself – could you pass it on? Maybe one of your
customers is recruiting. These are things worth passing on via your social media
channels, for example.
P
People
People are interested in people. Find as many ways as possible of letting people
connect and engage appropriately with your people. Provide profiles on your
website. Interview them in your blogs. Consider an intro video for key people.
Share the load with blog articles from various authors around your business.
Back to List Index

Personality
As business gets more social, sharing a bit of what makes the people in your
business who they are gets more important. Have a think about ways that you
can show a bit of personality.
Pictures
Imagery is content. Think about the photography and pictures on your website,
brochureware, etc. Could you do something more exciting with it? Could you run
a competition to get your employees’ children to design your next Christmas
card? Could you run a customer photo competition of some kind. Are you
photographing events? These are great for posting on Facebook and Pinterest.
Could you even make an actual physical photo album, or a photo booklet? If
yours is a visual product this could be brilliant.
Places
See Locations, Maps, and Tours.
Back to List Index

Planning
January, for year ahead. April, for next financial year. Seasonally, for each
season, etc, etc. Could you provide a tool, template, article or special offer to
help people with their planning?
Politics
See Economy, Laws... those politicians are always coming up with suggestions,
initiatives, etc. that are likely to effect you, your business, your industry and your
customers. Issue a comment, provide a guide, break down the impact.
Back to List Index

Polls
A quick poll and your reaction to it can be a great way of starting a bit of a
debate. Think about things in your business that have potentially polarised
responses and taking a quick poll of opinion can be a great starting point for a
two-sided discussion piece.
Predictions
A stalwart of January editorials up and down the land... could you make some
predictions about your industry? Maybe you could do this seasonally, quarterly
or annually?
Back to List Index

Product development
How products and services are developed and improved can in itself be a
source of interest. Telling the story of how your own range was developed from
the original idea to what it is now can really bring your company to life.
Illustrated with early prototypes or sketches, with details of the decisions you
made and why - this could make a really compelling read. And, a bit more
interesting than features and benefits.
Productivity
An ever-present theme... anything you can do to help people achieve more in
less time will be welcomed. Are there little tips around your area of expertise
that could save people time or energy?
Back to List Index

Proﬁles
We’ve mentioned profiles quite a bit... this is the mini biographies on key people.
By which we mean at least your Board, and almost certainly your sales people
and account handlers. People buy from people, so this is critical content that
shouldn’t be ignored.
Problems
See Concerns. Solving a problem is almost always a perfect piece of marketing
content.
Proﬁt
As with money, in a B2B context – if you can help people maximise their profits,
tell them about it. We’d recommend doing this in a gentle ‘how-to’ way rather
than a ‘get rich quick’ style – it’s much more credible and approachable.
Back to List Index

Q
Qualiﬁcations
Does your industry have professional qualifications? If so, what do you think of
them? You could issue content around the time of exams, particularly if the
people taking those qualifications are likely to be prospective customers or
recruits. Or, if you don’t think they’re worth the paper they are written on, you’ve
found a great topic of debate.
Quality
What does quality mean in your business? How to you ensure that you reach it?
And, how does your business guarantee quality standards? All great topics for
marketing content.
Questionnaires
See Research.
Back to List Index

Questions
Ask questions that often get asked to which you know the answer. And ask
questions to which you want to know the answer. The former helps people find
your answers to their questions... which may lead to them buying your solution
to their problem. The latter gets people thinking, helps you improve your offer
and may help you to find solutions to your problems. All good.
Quotes
Take care not to over do it... a stream of inspirational quotes on a Twitter feed
can seem more that a little trite. But, if there’s a saying or a quote that you find
genuinely useful, funny or inspirational it might be worth sharing, or using as the
starting point for an article.
Back to List Index

R
Regional interest
Keeping up to speed on what’s going on in your area, or in regions where you
have a presence, is important if you’re to appeal to a local audience.
Religion
This one comes with a health warning... but some religious events like Easter and
Christmas are fairly safe ground here in the UK. One of our IT clients runs a
great online Easter Egg that’s lots of fun. Take a moment to think which of the
major religious festivals might be appropriate for themed activity.
Back to List Index

Research
We can’t speak highly enough on the value of research. Especially original, well
conducted, thought-provoking, research. If you can provide an original and
evidenced perspective on something of interest to your audience, you’re onto a
winner. It gives you content for news releases, reports, web seminars,
roundtable events, benchmark reports and articles galore. A content marketers
dream!
Retrospectives
If predictions are the January staple diet, then retrospectives does it for
December. Whether you’re collating a best of, or detailing highlights from the
year just gone – a look back post, video or picture diary can make an interesting
piece.
Back to List Index

Reviews
Your reviews of other people’s stuff and their reviews of yours. Both rich seams
of marketing content. How about reviewing a set of tools for a service you
recommend, like a marketer reviewing email software, and talking people
through the pros and cons? And, asking for reviews of your products, services,
talks, etc. can also generate great content for your blog, product pages,
brochures, sales presentations, and more.
S
Saints’ days
Links to Religion, of course, and may not be appropriate to all. But theming
activities around days like Valentine’s, St David, St George, St Andrew, St
Patrick, etc. can provide the starting point for some great materials.
Back to List Index

Scenarios
It you struggle to get named case studies signed off, scenarios can work well.
Find ways of demonstrating the likely outcomes of using your products or
services. Animated story style pieces can work well for this.
Science
It’s all around us people. The news coverage of the hadron collider certainly
shows an appetite for science-based stories. Are there any live experiments you
could show? Do you test things as part of your new product development? Can
you demonstrate it? You can also mark anniversaries of scientific discoveries,
using them as a starting point for discussion about the impact on your industry.
Back to List Index

Seasons
Whether it’s a new range, a photo competition or a timely offer, the shifting
seasons will almost always give you a reason to get the word out in some way
or another. Spring cleaning, for example, works well as a metaphor for all sorts
of businesses.
Skills
Building on Guides and How-tos, sharing tips on improving skills always goes
down well. Demonstrating your skills can also be great. Is there a way that you
can show the process you take to deliver your product or service? For
knowledge businesses a ‘day in the life’ can work well. For manufacturers and
craft businesses, videos of your stuff being made are great.
Back to List Index

Sport
Being mindful of the various trademarks and restrictions around the names of
heavily sponsored sporting events, you can make some mileage in commenting
on sporting events. Whether its the sport itself, related facts and figures, impact
on local economy, how great it is for team-building, dealing with staff truancy...
there’s usually an angle to be found.
Standards
Are there industry standards that apply in your business? Or, can you help
people meet a certain required standard. A quick guide on what the standard is,
how you reach it, how not to breach it, etc. can be really useful.
Back to List Index

Statistics
News outlets love stats. And people are always looking for a bit of logic they can
point to to back up their (often) emotional decision-making. Can you track and
report on trends in your market? Could you issue some sort of annual
benchmark against certain criteria? These can be interestingly represented in
an infographic.
Stereotypes
There’s a debate to be had as to whether stereotypes are useful shorthand or
harmful generalisations. Whichever your viewpoint, stereotypes are instantly
recognisable and can be a starting point for discussion. Are there any in your
industry that you could challenge or verify?
Back to List Index

Stories
Story-telling is a key skill in creating compelling content. Whether it’s your own
business journey, an amusing anecdote, a real case study for a made-up
scenario to illustrate a point, doing so in a story style appeals to people on a
more emotional level. Have a think about your company – what are your
stories? How did you come up with products? Have you turned things around?
How did you find your first client?
Success
Without being smug or big headed, the occasional celebration of success can be
appropriate. Perhaps you’ve won a new client, or secured some great press
coverage. Linking to the news item, or issuing a public thank you to people who
helped make it happen can work well.
Surveys
See Research. A rich vein for great content.
Back to List Index

T
Technology
It’s all around us. How to get the most from it, what to do when it goes wrong,
and advice on the latest gadgets, are all good subjects. Even if you’re not a
technology company, it is highly likely that your customers encounter technology
alongside, or in the course of using, your products or services – can you help
them with that?
Television
We’ve seen some TV programmes really capture the public imagination
recently. Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad – these have all been real talking
points of late. And, Strictly, X-Factor, and the Apprentice seem to have
recaptured some of that TV occasion feeling that was lost in recent years due to
on-demand offerings and playback. Most major programmes now have their
own Twitter hashtag for related conversations. Using an appropriate
programme as inspiration, you could review performances, costumes, or run
your own polls on elements of the shows?

Templates
Is there something you do that could be made into a useful template of some
kind? A briefing template, or a calculator tool of some kind? Perhaps you could
create a useful template that is given away when people sign-up for your
newsletter? Or release one weekly for particular types of subscriber or
customer?
Testimonials
It is much better to have someone else say that your products and services are
good. Third party endorsements are a really powerful tool. Are you giving
people a simple way of providing testimonials? And when you have them are
you making good use? A montage video of written testimonials, or a video taken
at the end of an event work brilliantly.
Back to List Index

Thank you
Saying thank you makes everyone smile. Whether it’s an annual round-up of
people and businesses who’ve supported you and your company in the year, or
a monthly thank you for a member of your team who’s performed particularly
well, taking a moment to say thank you demonstrates your humanity and
humility.
Time
It’s in short supply, and we all want to make more of what time we have. Can
you give people a list of things they could do with just 10 minutes, or could you
show them time-saving shortcuts related to your products and services?
Back to List Index

Tips
Tips are simply short snippets of advice. You could do a series of 140 character
tips as Tweets, or you could set-up a series of daily tips that people can request
to receive by email? And, of course, a list of tips make a great blog article or
video.
Tours
Do you have a venue, location or website for which you could prepare a video
tour of some kind? This is great for destinations, hotels, etc. – but don’t count it
out if people don’t actually visit your premises. A ‘behind-the-scenes’ tour can
be really interesting and show a different side to your business.
Back to List Index

Training
Can you turn some of your fabulous content into more formal training? Look at
your Guides, How-tos, etc. – is there a workshop in that? Or maybe an online
web seminar or simply a free webcast? Or, perhaps training is what you do for a
living; can you video and use snippets to draw people in?
Travel
In the lead up to holidays, or when the transport network hits the headlines, can
you offer advice, tips or guides on travel? We all need to get from A to B, we all
have time on our hands whilst we do so... perhaps reading tips for airports, or
productivity tips on the move... or getting the most from your products and
services from the road?
Back to List Index

Trends
Linking to Stats and Predictions, trend-spotting can make for interesting
content. Could you put together a video montage of imagery that demonstrates
a trend? Or perhaps you could undertake some research to indicate a trend?
Or, simply stating your opinion on what you think is becoming a trend.
Turning points
Stories about turning points are fascinating. Have there been key moments in
your career, your business, or your product development that people would find
interesting? We all have times when things are tough, seeing how others deal
with similar situations can be very engaging.
Back to List Index

U
Uniforms
Does your company wear a uniform? Is it up for a refresh? Getting your
audience to suggest or vote on new styles could get a little engagement. Maybe
you have an informal ‘uniform’ that says something about your working style?
Universe
Solar or lunar eclipses, and interesting astronomical happenings can hold
people enthralled. Is there something you can bring to the party? Tips on
viewing, how to get a great photo, putting together a photo book, creating
merchandise with images – facts and figures related to the event?
Back to List Index

Unique
Is there something that you do that is unique? Can you demonstrate it or prove
it?
Usability
Do people handle or interact with your product or service? If so, asking for their
feedback on how easy they find it to use can make for excellent involvement,
and content for blogs, videos and reasons to get in touch to talk about user-
suggested improvements.
Back to List Index

V
Values
What’s at the heart of how you do business? What’s important to you? Are
there any guiding principles by which you make business decisions or treat
customers? Telling people about these and inviting people to tell you what they
think, and if you’re living up to them, can make for engaging content.
Vision
Where’s your business heading? Where’s your industry going to be in five years,
10 years? Telling people about the vision you have in mind, and asking whether
they agree or not always goes down well.
Back to List Index

Votes
See Polls.
W
Weather
The weather provides no end of content possibilities. Productivity, technology or
motivational tips for businesses affected by severe weather like snow. Or
handling staff truancy when people sneak in a sun-day. Or a photo competition
of some kind relating to the weather conditions. If you think ahead now for
something that relates to extreme heat, cold, wind, rain, etc. you can be ready to
pounce the moment the weather does its thing.
Weekends
Could you develop some content to help people skill-up over a weekend? Or,
could you suggest fun and interesting things to do at weekend?

Words
The meaning of words and the origins of them can be interesting in their own
right, and can spark thoughts on a subject. Perhaps you could pick out some
words that are used in your market and look at the origins and meaning of
them?
X
X – treasure hunts
Ok, I’m stumped on this one. I’m using it as ‘X marks the spot’ to talk about
treasure hunts. Could you run a treasure hunt around your website or across
your locations?
Back to List Index

Y
Ying and Yang
There are two sides to every story. Can you find a way of looking at something
from the opposite angle. Are there things that people take as a given that you
could explore? Could you set-up a two-sided debate on a contentious subject?
Yourself
There are really dull ways of talking about yourself – like, ‘buy this, it’s brilliant’ –
and there are more interesting ways of talking about yourselves. Careers
stories, turning points, team interviews, your values, favourite films, etc.
Back to List Index

Z
Zoology
Who would have thought that Meercats were so interesting? Go on... feature
your pets. Who doesn’t love the odd kitten in social media?
I hope that’s got you thinking, and I look forward to seeing some engaging
content!
If so, perhaps you’ll pass it on to someone you think would also find it useful. Do
send them to watertightmarketing.com/atoz
Do you have some more ideas?
Is there a topic or theme that you think is missing from this list? If you can think
of something that you think should be added to this A-to-Z please drop me a
line with the details:
Twitter: @bryonythomas,
or @watertightmkg
With much love,
Bryony

WATERTIGHTMARKETING
The Entrepreneur’s Essential Marketing
Manual... and, so much more!
The Watertight Marketing methodology, designed by Bryony Thomas, is the
culmination of 16 years of development, across over 200 companies. It
encapsulates over 30,000 hours of marketing experience into a plain English
guide anyone can use.
The powerful Watertight Marketing Framework gets you to understand how real
people really buy things, and guides you to a complete marketing plan on one
side of A4.
The end-to-end process, captured in the book and supported with online
programmes, is a guided 12-month programme to review and renew every
aspect of your marketing operation. It looks from the bottom up to ensure every
investment builds on the last for the fastest and most sustainable payback.
“Without doubt this is the best book on small business
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blueprint that any small business can implement and
improve their bottom line. It cuts through the jargon and
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their marketing pay. She has a truly refreshing style that makes her ideas click
and stick.
This multi-award winning business book, brings together Bryony’s extensive
experience and many hats. First as a marketing agency bod, working on clients
like Microsoft and Dell. As client-side director of marketing for ClarityBlue; a
200-person business that sold for £85m. And then, as director of marketing in
the integrated marketing division of FTSE 100 company, Experian.
In 2008, Bryony started the journey towards what is today the Watertight
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